Nissan gamer-turned-racer hits the track

Former Australia Post driver Matt Simmons will take on the world's best GT drivers this weekend in the opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series in Monza, Italy.

Simmons is the first Australian to win the Nissan GT Academy, a contest that takes the best players of Playstation's Gran Turismo computer game and turns them into real-life racing drivers. Since winning the GT Academy shoot-out in August 2016 Simmons has been preparing for his racing debut with a heavy workload of physical training and testing his new car - a Nissan GT-R GT3.

Having quit his job as an Australia Post courier Simmons will pair up with professional British driver Sean Walkinshaw and fellow GT Academy winner, Frenchman Romain Sarazin. The trio will share a car in the four three-hour endurance races as well as the famous Spa 24 Hours.

Simmons tested the Nissan racer at the French Paul Ricard circuit recently to continue his training and believes he is now ready to put himself to the test against his competitors.

Former postie and video gamer Matt Simmons will make his real-life racing debut at Monza this weekend. Photo: Chris Brown Photographer

"Since hopping out of the Nissan GT-R GT3 at the Paul Ricard, I have been counting down the days until Monza," Simmons said.

"We learnt a lot over those two days which will really help towards this race weekend.

"Arriving in the UK for the NISMO pre-race training camp has been great. There is a lot of excitement building between us and some nerves creeping in too.

"The first race of your career is always special and to drive at Monza with so much racing heritage is a tick off the bucket list. We will be learning and pushing to get the best result but for us, the most important outcome will be to finish and see that chequered flag on Sunday. To taste champagne would be a nice bonus too!

"It has been an incredible journey to this point and I know I will have a lot of support from Australia riding along with me this weekend."

Although the idea of turning a computer game player into a racing driver may sound like a hard task Nissan has enjoyed significant success with the program. Last year's Blancpain Endurance Series was won by former GT Academy graduate Wolfgang Reip, who shared his Nissan GT-R GT3 with professional drivers Alex Buncombe and Katsumasa Chiyo.

But cuts to Nissan's racing budget meant Reip was cut loose by the Japanese team. However, underlining just how good the former gamer has become in real-life racing he has been signed by Bentley's factory team to try and defend his title in its Continental GT3 racer.